Fans of the Sims series are always in a hurry to purchase or download a new game as soon as possible when it appears on sale or on torrents. However, this leads to the fact that they then have to experience difficulties with updating this life simulator, since developers are constantly releasing new additions, add-ons, and patches for an already released project. Therefore, players have to periodically download and install the latest content, and there may be some difficulties. What can we say about the case when a gamer downloads the basic version of the game, and then he has to install all the add-ons that have been released since this project went on sale. There is no way to do without detailed instructions. Therefore, this article will be fully devoted to the issue of how to update "Sims 3".
The difference between a license and a pirate
All gamers are well aware that there is a huge difference between the licensed version of any game and a pirated copy. In the first case, you get full technical support, absolutely all the working functions, all new additions and patches for free, as well as a guarantee of the game’s performance. In the second, you don’t have any of this - there are no guarantees that the game will work, that all functions will be active, and so on. And if you want to learn how to update "Sims 3", then you need to understand what is the difference between a pirate and a license regarding this game. And the difference is that in the case of a license, absolutely all add-ons and patches will be official, with complete instructions for installing them, which will greatly facilitate your task. If you have saved and use the pirated version of the game, then you will have to update the game exclusively by unpatcher, which is much less convenient and effective. The rest of the differences between the license and the pirated updates do not apply - we are already talking about game aspects that are not relevant to the topic of this article. Here, all the attention is paid only to how to update the "Sims 3".
Check In Changed Files
Before proceeding with the installation of updates, you need to seriously prepare for this process. If you want to learn how to update "Sims 3", then you should, first of all, take into account some very important points. First, you need to keep a record of those files of the original game that you replaced during use. Most often this applies to pirated versions, which are accompanied by NoCD / NoDVD patches and various cracks that allow the game to work without being licensed. These patches and cracks replace the main files of the game with others, deleting them. Therefore, you should make sure that these original files are pre-copied to a separate folder from which you could later restore them. The fact is that to install patches and add-ons you need a basic original version of the game, and not changed with the help of cracks - otherwise nothing will work. So before installing add-ons, make sure that the original game files are in their places - the way they were when you installed "Sims 3".
Download updates through the launcher
If you have a licensed copy of the game, then neither Sims 3 installation, nor downloading add-ons and patches should cause you any problems. All this is done very simply - through the game launcher. If you run it, and not the game itself, then a window appears in front of you, in which there is a wide variety of different tabs. Naturally, you can start the game, configure it, and so on. One of the tabs is called "Updates" - that is what you need. By going to this tab, you will need to check for updates, and if they are available, put them to download. That's all that is required of you. If you have a licensed version, nothing will change - the cheats on "Sims 3" will also work, you can do whatever you want, but you will never have any technical problems. Naturally, a license costs money, so not everyone agrees to purchase it. Therefore, it is worth considering the option of downloading patches for pirates.
Patches for the pirated version
You figured out how to download patches and updates for the licensed version of the game, but not everyone owns it, so you should pay attention to the pirate. Cheats on "Sims 3" will not help you in installing updates - you should not count on them. You need to rely only on yourself and your strengths, as well as on the clarity of the instructions. If you can’t download the update files through the launcher, then you have to do it manually - go to the game’s website, look for the updates you need and download them to a folder in which you can then find them for further work with them. In the same way, additional materials for "Sims 3", add-ons and add-ons are downloaded. But pay attention to the fact that you do not need to download them directly to the game folder - their integration will occur a little later.
Game update
When you have obtained all the necessary files for updating your game client, all the additional materials for Sims 3, and so on, a very important point comes - the update process itself. If you use a licensed version of the game, then you will have a special application that is designed to facilitate the process - it will give you instructions for each step, help you in the update process and will not allow any errors to appear. However, you can still follow the essence of the process - first you need to start the update to the oldest version, then install the necessary add-ons and add-ons available for it, then update the game to the next version, deal with the add-ons and add-ons again, and so on. Different versions of "Sims 3" have various additional content, which later can also acquire patches, so you will need to carefully patch both the game itself and all add-ons with additions. Fortunately, you have an application that takes you literally by the hand through this process.
Changes after Generations
We should also pay attention to what happened after the release of the Generations add-on. As you already understood, up to this point the update was carried out according to the following plan: the basic "Sims 3" is updated, then the add-ons for this version are installed, the base client is updated again, the installed add-ons are updated, new add-ons are installed - and so on. But, fortunately, after the release of Generations, this process was greatly simplified. Now you need to update only the basic version of the game - all add-ons, additions, as well as patches and updates to them will be installed automatically. As a result, you update only "Sims 3", the original game, and all additional content is updated independently.
Manual incremental update
The update process is much less pleasant if you only own a pirated version that does not provide you with access to a special application for updating the game. Then you have to prepare to do everything yourself - and you will need to act very carefully. In fact, it is attentiveness that is the key factor, because otherwise the process has an identical algorithm - except that you will need to search and run each patch manually, and not using software. Just install the update for the base game, and then add-ons and updates to them, and then repeat again and again until you get to the life-saving add-on Generations, after which you will only need to update the base version of the game and install new add-ons if you encounter them.
Zeroing problem
In the case of the Sims 3 updates, there is a slight problem with resetting the base game version. It occurs most often on patches from 1.15 to 1.19 - after installing them, your version of the game may return to 1.0, that is, reset to zero. If this happens, you need to reinstall the basic version of the game and update it immediately to version 1.22 - this will fix the error, and in the future it will not be encountered.